Brazil’s Rousseff Creates Committee to Monitor World Cup Gouging

Oct. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff
set up a committee to monitor prices and service quality ahead
of next year’s World Cup amid concerns that visitors to soccer’s
showcase event may encounter astronomical markups on lodging and
transportation.

Embratur, Brazil’s tourism agency, in August published a
study that said some hotels plan to increase rates during the
World Cup six times higher than their current level.

“We will not allow abuses,” Chief of Staff Gleisi
Hoffmann said yesterday in an e-mailed statement, announcing the
formation of the group that meets for the first time Oct. 24.
“We will use all the instruments available to the state to
ensure the protection of consumer rights, whether Brazilian or
foreign.”

The tournament will take place in June and July in 12
cities across South America’s biggest country. Soccer’s
governing body, FIFA, and government ministers regularly have
warned hotel operators about prices in Brazil, where there are
already concerns about capacity.

The monitoring group will include officials from the
ministries of sports, justice, tourism, health, finance, the
civil aviation Secretariat and Embratur.

The measure “is essential to ensure a good international
image for Brazilian tourism,” said Embratur’s head, Flavio
Dino. “The monitoring we do of the international media shows
that we cannot have a situation that presents a picture of
Brazil’s government as one that doesn’t act in the face of
abuse.”

Tourist Locations

The task force will study prices and services in hotels,
restaurants, airports and other tourist locations in host
cities.

Embratur’s study compared what hotels are charging for the
period of the 32-team World Cup with current prices. Fans hoping
to catch the July 13 final in Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana stadium
will face prices more than double the average $200 per night
charged in Johannesburg in 2010.

The average cost per night in Rio around the time of the
monthlong tournament will be $461, which is $161 more than the
cost of staying in a hotel in Berlin when that city staged the
2006 final, the report said.

The biggest price surge reported by Embratur involved the
northeastern city of Salvador, where one hotel is charging $509
per night during the World Cup. It charged $75 per night last
month. Hotel rates in other cities are between 200 percent and
350 percent higher during the competition.